Indian Sculpture c7.s2.5

c7.s2.5

The way in which the raw material is transmuted into Indian plastic, and the qualities that are the outcome, have their correspondence in the attitude towards the subject matter and its treatment. Whatever figures or scene the artist represents are real to him, imaginary neither less nor more than the seen. He does not assert himself in his creation. But however impersonal and above individual thought, emotion, or technique be the attitude of the artist, he cannot but impart his vitality to his creation, i.e. his most unindividualised and natural aspect. On the kind and degree of this, while assuming a standard in common of technical efficiency, depend the quality of production. Vitality in this connection has to be understood as mainly vegetative. This is the chief root, and its ramifications embrace the meditative amongst others, while the animalic is a lesser root, and innervation or emotion correspondingly well up into lower branches.